How Are Animals Tested On
After thousands of years of harmful animal experiments, the time has come for them to end.
Back in 500 BC, ruthless operations such as vivisections were frequently performed.1 Although it was inhumane, the lack of technology did not leave many options in terms of experimentation and learning how organisms functioned. In today’s world where technology is so advanced, animal experimentation has become archaic, and there are several other research methods that provide more accurate results. Regardless of technological advancements, animal experimentation is still frequently used.
Despite having ethical guidelines researchers must follow, the vast majority of these experiments keep their animals captive in inhumane conditions and inflict pain and suffering on them. Even though some researchers use these animals to “benefit humanity” by testing new drugs or to investigate diseases, these experiments fail to provide accurate results. Furthermore, many experiments test for trivial information whose results provide little benefit to society. Experiments on animals must be stopped because they provide useless information, there are plenty of more effective alternatives, and because they are inhumane.
The first reason why animal experimentation should be stopped is because the information gained is not useful.
According to the National Institutes of Health, a stunning 95% of drugs that are safe and effective on animals fail in the human trials.2 Not only are these trials inaccurate, but the successes in the animal trials lead to human trials which puts these individuals in harm’s way. One of the reasons why these experiments are unreliable is because the diseases used in animal and human trials are not identical. When researchers perform these experiments, they artificially create the diseases instead of letting them occur naturally.3 No matter how precise the researchers are, the diseases will never be the same which will affect the elicited results. Another reason as to why the animal trials are so inaccurate is because every species reacts differently.
Since biology varies greatly between species, it would be rare for a drug that works on an animal to translate over to humans. A staggering example is shown by HIV and AIDS tests on primates. As of 2015, approximately 85 HIV and AIDS vaccines have passed the primate trials, yet none of them have been successful in protecting humans.4 Since the results of animal experiments are unreliable, they must be stopped.
Furthermore, many experiments on animals have little scientific purpose.
John Lilly, an American neurologist, performed experiments on dolphins and monkeys to try and get them to talk. In one test, Lilly gave electrical shocks to several monkeys’ pleasure centers in their brain when they emitted a barking noise.5 Determined to get these monkey’s to actually speak words, Lilly performed hundreds of these trials with no success.
Similarly, Lilly performed experiments on bottlenose dolphins in an attempt to bridge the gap between airborne and waterborne communication, all of which failed and ended in the dolphins’ demise.6 Lilly concluded that due to differences in dolphins and humans’ speaking pitches, it is nearly impossible for us to communicate with each other.7Instead of giving up on this impossible, pointless experiment, Lilly pushed to teach the dolphins a new way of speaking. Attempting to impose and get animals to speak our own language illustrates the human hubris present in many of these experiments, all while lacking scientific purpose.
Additionally, animal trials should become banned because there are more effective ways of experimentation.
Back when technology was not as advanced, animal experimentation was one of the only ways to conduct scientific research. However, in the technologically advanced world we live in today, there are several other methods of experimentation that are more effective. One such method is called In Vitro testing. This practice uses real human organ and blood vessel cells to mimic the composition and function of human organs and organ systems.8
These cells are then placed in hollow channels within a chip of flexible polymer, which allows researchers to observe cross-sections of human organs and drugs’ effects on them.9It is shown that, “the chips…have been shown to replicate human physiology, diseases, and drug responses more accurately than crude animal experiments do.”10 The reason why In Vitro testing is more accurate than animal experiments is simple; testing on human cells will elicit more accurate results compared to testing on animal cells.
In the past four years, the use of In Vitro testing has skyrocketed, and is used in more than 150 labs, including 17 of the top 25 pharmaceutical companies (the FDA even uses these organ chips when studying COVID-19 vaccines!) Another alternative to animal trials is called In Silico testing. Researchers have configured advanced computer simulations that can mimic the progression of developing diseases. This method is very complex, as it uses qualitative classification, quantitative regression, and cross referencing to ensure accuracy.
Researchers first start off qualitatively by identifying a compound as toxic or non-toxic.
Then they use quantitative regression to predict the toxicity of chemicals that are similar to those found in the compound. Finally, cross-referencing is used to predict the compound’s toxicity by comparing the toxicity of the similar chemicals found during quantitative regression.11 The end result of this process is a good estimate of the drug’s toxicity, as well as the drug’s effects on the body. Since the In Vitro and In Silico methods yield very accurate results, they should replace animal trials.
Furthermore, animal experiments must end because they are inhumane. Even though some animals are protected under the Animal Welfare Act, the vast majority of them “are not animal enough” to be protected.12 Exclusion from these laws allows researchers to deny pain relief to animals after procedures, and does not require researchers to look for other alternatives to animal experimentation.13 Even the animals that are protected by the law are still subject to excruciating methods of experimentation such as shocks, burns, poisoning, starvation, and isolation.
Unknown photographer – This image was released by the National Cancer Institute, an agency part of the National Institutes of Health, with the ID 2406 (image) (next).
Although it is more difficult for animals to express their pain, “mammals share the same nervous system, neurochemicals, perceptions, and emotions, all of which are integrated into the experience of pain.” 14
This displays that even though animals feel and display their pain in a different way, it is still present during all of these traumatic procedures. One specific test that is used to test toxicity is called the LD50. The LD50 is used to determine the drug dose that is necessary to kill half of all subjects within a certain amount of time. To execute this test,
researchers attach tubes to the animal’s stomach and fill it up with the substance until they die.15 During the experiment, it is typical for these animals to experience symptoms such as paralysis, convulsion, vomiting, and diarrhea. However, since finding the lethal dose is the primary objective of this experiment, these animals cannot be put out of their misery, leaving them to suffer for days to weeks.
Not only are the experiments performed on these animals inhumane. Furthermore, the conditions in which they are held captive are cruel as well.
Referring back to John Lilly’s experiment on the bottlenose dolphins, Lilly and his team killed five dolphins in rapid succession after putting them in a small restraining tank.16 All five of these dolphins died due to suffocation, partly due to their non-autonomic breathing when given anesthesia, but also due to the claustrophobic container they were held in. Another example of the inhumane conditions in which animals are held is shown in Kafka’s “Report to an Academy.”
This so-called metabolic cage. Enables FDA researchers to evaluate how a radioactive-traced food additive is. Both stored in. And eliminated and expired from the test animal. For more information on FDA History, please visit: www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/WhatWeDo/History/default.htm…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration – Animal Testing (FDA 073)
In the story, an ape describes his situation while he is stuck inside of a cage, “Hopelessly sobbing… beating my skull against the locker, sticking out my tongue at anyone who came near me- that was how I filled in time at first in my new life. But over and above it all only the one feeling: no way out.”17 The ape in the story illustrates how being a subject in animal experiments feels. Although they are stuck in cramped cages, the worst feeling that these animals face is that there is no way out. Due to the brutal conditions in which animal experiments take place, they should be forbidden.
Animal trials should become banned because they provide us with inaccurate information, there are more reliable methods of experimentation, and because the animals are treated in cruel ways. Although back in the day animal experimentation was necessary, now there are an
abundance of methods that yield more accurate results and don’t require the use of animals. Laboratories around the world have started to embrace this change, and internationally more than 41 countries have limited or banned animal cosmetic testing.18 Although this is just the beginning of a long process, hopefully someday all animal testing will come to an end.
Written by Kobe Ellenbogen
How Are Animals Tested On
1 Santiago Sanchez and Luis Serrano, “History of Animal Experimentation and Animal Rights,” BEOnChip, Accessed March 22, 2022, https://beonchip.com/animal-rights-history/2“11 Animal Testing Statistics That Are Hard To Swallow,” PETA, Accessed March 22, 2022, https://www.peta.org/features/animal-experimentation-statistics/
3“Facts and Statistics About Animal Testing,” PETA, Accessed March 22, 2022,
4 Jarrod Bailey, “An assessment of the role in chimpanzees in AIDS vaccine research,” NIH, Accessed March 22, 2022, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18826331/
5 John Durham Peters, “John Lilly, Dolphin Vocals, and the Tape Medium,” Accessed March 23, 2022, https://moodle.amherst.edu/pluginfile.php/883497/mod_resource/content/1/9.%20John%20Durham%20P eters%2C%20“John%20Lilly%2C%20Dolphin%20Vocals%2C%20and%20the%20Tape%20Medium”%20 %282020%29.pdf
6Ibid.
7Ibid.
8 Donald Ingber, “Human Organs-on-Chips,” Wyss Institute, Accessed March 23, 2022, https://wyss.harvard.edu/technology/human-organs-on-chips/
9Ibid.
10“Alternatives to Animal Testing,” PETA, Accessed March 23, 2022,
11 Frank Sawanga Ndakala, “What are the advantages of in silico toxicology in drug development?” PreScouter, Accessed March 23, 2022,
https://www.prescouter.com/2022/02/advantages-of-in-silico-toxicology-in-drug-development/12 Paula Moore, “PETA Study Shows a Staggering Increase in Animal Use in Experiments,” PETA, Accessed March 23, 2022,
https://www.peta.org/blog/peta-study-shows-a-staggering-increase-in-animal-use-in-experiments/ 13 Ibid.
14 Liz Langley, “The Surprisingly Humanlike Ways Animals Feel Pain,” National Geographic, Accessed March 23, 2022, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/animals-science-medical-pain
15 John W. Kimball, “The LD50 test,” Accessed March 23, 2022,
16 John Durham Peters, “John Lilly, Dolphin Vocals, and the Tape Medium,” Accessed March 25, 2022, https://tinyurl.com/2fm725rv
17 Franz Kafka, Report to an Academy (New York: Schocken Books, 1983) 253.
18“Cosmetics testing FAQ,” The Humane Society of the United States, Accessed March 25, 2022, https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/cosmetics-testing-faq
